Dark matter searches with PICO and the bubble evolution
Ubi Wichoski
University of Montreal (Canada)
Abstract: Observations indicate that the amount of dark matter in the Universe is 5 times larger than the amount of regular matter. However, the nature of dark matter is still unknown as all the evidence is purely gravitational. Notwithstanding, there is strong theoretical motivation towards dark matter being made of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Spiral galaxies like the Milky-Way are believed to be immersed in a halo of dark matter. The PICO Collaboration searches for dark matter through the direct detection of WIMPs in our Galaxy via dark matter spin-dependent and spin independent interactions with ordinary matter (specifically 19F nuclei). In this talk I will briefly review the evidence for dark matter; discuss the theoretical and experimental motivation for the direct detection; give an overview of the PICO experiment; discuss the superheated liquid technique including recent studies on modelling the bubble creation and evolution; and briefly report on the experiment status and future plans.
Seminar takes place on Tuesday, March 13th 2018 at 2:00 PM
in the IEAP meeting room, Praha 2 ‐ Albertov, Horská 3a/22.
| doc. Dr. André Sopczak seminar organizer |
doc. Ing. Ivan Štekl, CSc. director of IEAP |
doc. Dr. André Sopczak IEEE CS - NPSS chair |
NUCLEAR & PLASMA SCIENCES SOCIETY CHAPTER
IEEE Czechoslovakia section
http://www.ieee.cz/en/nps